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I hope a lot of people stayed up last night to watch The Colbert Report, because it was totally worth it. Meryl Streep was Colbert’s guest, and he pretty much dropped his Faux’Reilly persona to totally geek out on her. In his defense, she geeked out a little on him too. Most of the interview she just sort of giggled girlishly – which, when done by Meryl, is quite charming. Meryl looked gorgeous too – she’s lightened her hair to a really pretty, warm caramel-blonde and she dressed up in what looked like a silk blouse and heels. She must really like Stephen Colbert, because Meryl doesn’t get dressed up for much anymore.

At the beginning of the interview, he jokes that he’s really “Meryl Streep playing Stephen Colbert for the whole show… I’m that good.” Colbert asks her if when she got the role of Julia Child, she thought, “Man, I get to bulk up!” Meryl says, “I kind of did, inadvertently… I looked at it like a pregnancy, you know, ‘Whatever!’ I could just eat whatever you want.” Colbert laughs and says, “Actually, saying ‘Whatever!’ is a great way to start a pregnancy.” They both tell funny stories about food and their childhoods, but one of my favorite moments is when Colbert asks Meryl, “Are you afraid that portraying Julia Child is going to make cooking seem cool? Are teenagers going to start having braising parties?” I also love when he scolds her for not being on more red carpets, asking why she isn’t partying with Kanye West.

Meryl also sat down with Salon for a nice little interview. Here are some of the highlights:

You’ve played plenty of real-life characters through the years, but rarely such a familiar person as Julia Child. Did that worry you? Did you worry about playing it too broadly — like Dan Aykroyd’s caricature on “SNL”?
Well, probably it should have. But I had just finished “Doubt” and didn’t have any time to think about it. And before “Doubt”… I didn’t have time to think about that. I think generally I’m better when I’m thrown out on the stage with a [mimes a confused look] “What, what, what do I do?” [Laughs] I really do. I think the more time you have to worry about something — actors that prepare for a year to work on something — I know I couldn’t do it, because I’d over-think. I would definitely over-think.

I just had the same outlines in my mind that everybody had. You know, the voice, the posture and things like that. But really, what I attached to in my imagination was her spirit. She was so similar in spirit and approach to life to my mother that I got to do a little tiny homage to Mary Streep while I was doing this. Which meant a lot to me and sort of located me centrally in a body I loved.

That’s interesting to know, because your performances are closely scrutinized for their potential influences. In “Manchurian Candidate” [2004] you said you’d watched women like Karen Hughes and Peggy Noonan, but a lot of people were convinced you were playing Hillary Clinton, and — I thought it was fascinating that people thought it was her. Because, honestly, I’d never thought about her for one second while I was doing it. But there was so much anti-Hillary vitriol in the press at that time that anybody with a bubble haircut — you know? Even though [my character Eleanor Shaw] was a brunette and from the South and looked like me! I think the women that are sort of driving, aggressive ambitious presences in films are still terrifying — and in life, I guess. It’s still something society is chafing to accommodate.

You had a famous quip in the 1990s about how difficult it was for older women to get good roles — that Hollywood producers don’t want to cast women who remind them of their first wives. Recently, you’ve said that you don’t think anything has changed dramatically. And yet you’re wildly in demand …
I don’t think they have changed dramatically, otherwise all the actors my age would be working as much as I am. And I think I have surfed a wave of very good fortune. I guess, starting with [“The Devil Wears Prada”] it has to do with the money coming back in big blockbusters. But if there were more female-driven, interesting projects that were widely distributed … That audience is there, they want to go.

You said recently that you’re still “shocked” when you get a role. Is that really true? Come on, you’re Meryl Streep!
Yeah. I don’t know, I think [pauses to consider] I’m a valuable commodity to a project. But I’m always shocked that there’s an interesting, full-fledged, ambitiously wrought role for somebody like me, that somebody’s willing to put in a movie, it’s unusual, that’s what I mean by shocked. I’m not shocked because … “Gosh, me? How do I know how to act?” [Laughs] But there’s so many unbelievably talented, richly talented women and men that are older, that just don’t get a chance.

[From Salon]

Does Meryl understand that she still gets roles because she’s the greatest living actress working today? That she’s every director’s first choice in casting a female character over the age of 50? Sigh. I love her. If I could have even 2% of Meryl’s coolness right now, at my age, I would be a happy camper.

Here’s Meryl Streep at the ‘Julie & Julia’ premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on July 30th. Images thanks to WENN.com .